TIME SHOWS BIAS—AGAIN

Catalyst December Issue 1999

Time has a thing about Catholicism. We don’t know exactly why, but it is clear that the magazine treats the Church with great suspicion. And that’s putting it kindly.

In a November 15 story on Catholic hospital mergers with non-Catholic institutions, Timeflagged the story in its index by questioning, “Are church-run institutions imposing their faith on patients?” In case you’re wondering which church they meant, the story was entitled, “The Catholic Hospital Boom.” Flipping to the story, it is now renamed, “Holy Owned,” with the interesting subtitle, “Is it fair for a Catholic hospital to impose its morals on patients?” What’s driving Time mad, of course, is that Catholic hospitals don’t kill babies in their mother’s womb.

By raising this question, Time intends to lay the seed that there is something inherently illegitimate about the Catholic church insisting on Catholic standards in Catholic institutions. Is it fair that some Jewish institutions observe dietary customs that Catholics do not accept? Only a jerk or an anti-Semite would raise such a question. As for the us, we’d be relieved to know that Time employs jerks.